MRTE to spend RM50mil on robotic academy in Cyberjaya by 2021
06 Nov 2020
MRTE (M) Sdn Bhd is set to allocate RM50 million in capital expenditure (capex) to establish a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) academy in Cyberjaya by 2021, with an initial enrolment target of 2,000 students annually.
Managing director Datuk Badrul Hisham Ramli said the technology solutions company’s aspiration was in line with its goal to streamline the RPA ecosystem in Malaysia.
“The establishment of the RPA academy will strengthen our commitment to creating a new workforce that the market desperately needs,” he said at a recent virtual briefing.
RPA is a robotic technology that empowers businesses by automating repetitive processes, leveraging on configurable robotics software.
It provides solutions to organisations by automating manual and routine tasks, eliminating the risk of errors and freeing workers to do other high impact tasks.
Badrul said 30 per cent of the capex would be internally generated and the remaining 70 per cent, from bank borrowings.
“We also aim to become a leader in RPA in Asean over the next few years. Our target is based on in-house capability of RPA technology, which is synonymous with foreign companies especially those in the United States (US),” he said.
Badrul said RPA was still a new system but has reached maturity in developed countries.
Its familiarity in the technology and readily-available infrastructure is a boost for the company to market it domestically and within Asean.
RPA can be applied in various sectors including the banking, telecommunications, transportation and education.
With such capabilities, an employee who used to perform routine tasks can now be assigned to perform tasks that have a greater impact on the organisation.
By applying virtual robots to perform work and tasks, mistakes can be avoided and adherence to rules and standards can be improved. This can directly provide savings to the organisation in terms of the use of manpower, time and money.
“We are currently negotiating with three local universities to kick-start our RPA academy. For a start, RPA can be introduced in universities as sub-syllabus or short-course for students majoring in business, finance, human resource and international relation and computer science,” he said.
MRTE has also submitted proposals to the government to use RPA to boost government’s revenue in managing its human resource.
“Our aim is not to reduce labour cost but rather to enhance the government’s productivity. There is untaped or unrealised revenue that we can help the government to tap into using our RPA.
“The technology will increase productivity, efficiency and government revenue as it is controlled automatically, while the human workforce is able to focus on their actual work,” he said.
Additionally, the company has embarked on two pilot projects for the transportation and logistics sector.
There was also a request to develop RPA from a US-based company. However, MRTE did not agree and rather opted to introduce it to the Malaysian government.
Since the past 26 months, MRTE has been working on RPA involving three phases with an initial cost of more than RM10 million.
Established on August 22, 2003, MRTE began its digital transformation by adopting the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in its operations and services.
In the same year, MRTE began full-time research and development on RPA, which was carried out internally with the help from local experts in information technology industry.
Source: NST Posted on : 06 November 2020
